Although gaming has existed in some form for many years, its present familiar form of slot devices, table games, sports books, etc. has mainly developed in the last few decades. In gaming devices such as slot machines, handles have traditionally been included as a means to initiate a game by spinning the reels of the slot machine. With early mechanical slot machines, the pull on the handle of the gaming machine actuated the mechanical reels and set them spinning. However, with advancement in technology, buttons or other input means on the gaming machine now largely provide the function of initiating a game. This is due in part because recent gaming machines have become processor based instead of mechanically based. Since the mechanical action of pulling the handle is no longer critical to spin the reels or otherwise initiate a gaming session, the need for these gaming handles has all but ceased. Although gaming handles still can be pulled to initiate a gaming session on current games (even those with buttons), they generally remain on spinning reel-type slot machines more as a traditional element. Further, as the buttons used to initiate a gaming session are generally faster and easier to operate than the gaming handles, many players opt to forgo the handle pull as a means of initiating game play.
One problem with the constant increase in technology and new designs in the gaming cabinets of gaming devices is that an increased emphasis is being put on display quality and graphics layouts. This, in turn, often times makes the player interface portion of the cabinet crowded or overly complicated. That is, as the display areas become larger or include features such as secondary VFD (vacuum florescent display) or LCD (liquid crystal display) screens, the actual area for the buttons used to place bets and the card reader to read a player tracking card has become scarce. Further, gaming themes and concepts that require more player interaction have become desirable creating the need for more player interaction devices on the gaming devices. However, these additional interaction devices further crowd and complicate the player interaction area of gaming devices, frustrating players and slowing down the rate of play of the gaming devices. These and other problems in conventional gaming devices are addressed by embodiments of the present invention.